User talk:Skybandit
Hi, welcome to Public Domain Super Heroes! Thanks for your edit to the Clock page. Please leave a message on my talk page if I can help with anything! -- Crimsoncrusader (Talk) 13:26, 24 June 2009 Thanks! Only one question: How do YOU determine that these characters are actually Public Domain? Some websites say that many Quality and Fawcett characters are PD; others say that DC has them locked up. Who to believe? Who to Beleive Simple, beleive what the copyright law says. Any character in a story published in the USA before 1923 is public domain. Any character published in a story between 1923 and 1963, which was not copyright registered and renewed within 28 years after publishing, is public domain. That's the gist. DC did buy Quality's characters...then forgot to renew most of the books. Mrs. Arnold did renew some Plastic Man and Blackhawk in the 1950's. If some issues a character appears in are renewed, while others are not, it's mostly the first story that counts. A character appearing for the second time is considered "derived from" the prior story, and the copyright on that character depends on the status of the first appearance. Fawcett kept their characters until the 1990's, I think, but only renewed select issues in order to keep copyrights on Captain Marvel stories. Many early Fawcett characters are public domain, again, despite being "bought" by DC. In fact, when they went to renew Whiz Comics, they began with the 2nd issue actually published, which was technically the 4th issue (long story), and Marvel himself IS public domain. DC was scrupilous about copyright renewal of their own material, and everything got renewed, pretty much. Maybe the first issues of New Fun were not renewed, but I'm not sure. Marvel (Timely) appears not to have renewed their books until the 1970's, which was too late, but the official record for most Timely's says "see copyright office", so I'm not sure what that means. Burgos copyright renewed Human Torch himself, but seems to have been working for a studio at the time, making Torch a "work for hire", and requiring Marvel to renew, which they didn't. Captain America was litigated with Joe Simon in the late 1960's, so all his material was copyright renewed. This site, so far, has written up mostly Golden Age characters, but anything up until '63 may be public domain. The original Captain Atom, from Charlton sure is. - Fantasium popficton.wetpaint.com 12:25, 25 June 2009 (UTC) RE: Who to believe Interesting info. Similar laws exist pertaining to films made before 1963, and another set applies to films between 63-78, but those copyright laws were made in response to video recording, so I doubt if any apply to comics. I know that some films are considered "orphans," meaning that they are COPYRIGHTED, but no person or corporate entity exists to enforce it anymore. Many low-budget direct-to-video films fall into this category. I wonder if any small-press or underground comix are "orphaned?" ````